KARACHI: The Sindh government on Friday announced that markets, restaurants, marriage halls and hotels will close early, in a bid to conserve energy. The decision will remain in force from June 17 to July 16. As per a notification from the Sindh Home Department, all markets, bazaars, shops and malls will close by 9pm.

Marriage and banquet halls will close by 10:30pm, while hotels, restaurants, coffee shops and cafes must shut by 11pm.

The new rules are not applicable to medical stores, pharmacies, hospitals, petrol pumps, CNG stations, bakeries and milk shops.

The notification said that due to the power outages and load-shedding, and in order to reduce the shortfall between the supply and demand of electricity, there is an urgent need to take effective measures for conservation of energy in Sindh.

It said it has devised a two-pronged balanced approach — utilise daylight hours for business activities and minimise the possible adverse impact on the business activities.

According to the provincial government, the federal cabinet decided on June 7 to take measures to reduce load-shedding hours through conservation of energy. The meeting also demanded implementation of a national strategy for tackling the energy crisis.

Therefore, the notification said, it was “necessary and expedient to enforce certain restrictions in order to control increasing shortfall between the energy generation and its utilisation, so that this prevalent emergency of the energy shortfall may be controlled, which otherwise could have long term and multi-sectoral impacts on the lives of the general public of the Sindh province”.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022